Local historical context

In the 1950s, Aix-en-Provence experienced an intense and widespread urban dynamism that brought about a radical change in scale, the most significant in its history. The city suddenly emerged from an urban stagnation that lasted more than 200 years, from the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century.
The prosperity of Aix reached its peak in the 17th century, a time when urban growth was continuous: extension of the faubourg des Cordeliers, creation of new districts: Villeneuve (1583^[7]), Villeverte (1605), Mazarin (1646).

Until the beginning of the 20th century, the physiognomy of this urban framework inherited from the Great Century will remain almost unchanged.
Only in the 19th century was the creation of the Victor Hugo suburb between the passenger station and the Place de la Rotonde a significant extension. It should also be borne in mind that, during this century, the^[8] to destroy the gates^[9] and ramparts^[10] In the period between the Second World War and the Second World War, the city began the gradual but systematic urbanization of the city, which began in the 1950s and 1960s.
Urbanization that mainly affects the neighborhoods bordering the historic center: sector of the Pavillon Vendôme, district of the Gare, Saint-Jérôme, the Arts et Métiers, La Violette and Saint-Eutrope, the Minimes. A sparsely populated, dispersed habitat is being erected, which is still poorly emerging from the rural landscape and which is being established along the main communication routes converging towards the centre (road to Marseille, Avignon, the Alps and Nice), as the aerial photograph of the city taken in 1944.

This immobility that earned him the nickname of "sleeping beauty^[11]'is the result of stagnant demographic change.
The city had fewer than 30,000 inhabitants from the late 18th century to the early 20th century. It was not until the interwar period that this figure was exceeded in 1926 with 35,000 inhabitants. After the Second World War, in 1945, it reached 45,000 inhabitants. From there, its population growth explodes, in thirty years the city gains 70,000 inhabitants and becomes 1974, a city of 115,000 people.

Evolution of the population of Aix-en-Provence between 1790 and 1974:

The origin of these new migrants is multiple. The population increases by the contribution of the staff of large enterprises newly established in the region^[12] : Cadarache, Shell-Berre, Sud-Aviation current Eurocopter, the Canal de Provence company; the installation of annuitants and retirees^[13] who chose Aix as their place of residence because of the prestige of its architectural setting, its quality of life, its cultural vocation (University, International Festival of Lyric Art, etc.) and tourism (thermal baths, etc.); and, in 1962, by the mass arrival of repatriates from Algeria^[14].
This powerful demographic surge makes the city’s need for new housing suddenly apparent.

Dilapidated and unsanitary housing stock^[15], inherited from the historic city, the low density of construction of the Interwar period and the extremely weak municipal land heritage plunge Aix into an acute housing crisis.

From 1952, the municipality had a development and extension plan drawn up, which led to a wider urban planning document, the Master town planning plan, developed by architect-planner Gilbert Weil, validated in 1955 by the municipality and approved by the State in 1961.
It defines a new agglomeration perimeter and provides for the construction of north and west highways and ring roads in order to divert heavy traffic from the ring road.
At the same time, the creation of an urban development axis to the west of the old city is emerging with the ZUP of Encagnane and later the ZAC of Jas-de-Buffan.

Aix is catching up.

It was built between 1955 and 1960 four times more than in the previous five years and seven times more between 1960 and 1965.

Agricultural land is shrinking, large bastion estates are beginning to disappear in favour of large social or private housing programs.

Large social housing projects, high-end buildings and villas emerge from the ground, mingle and transform the traditional urban landscape of the "old Aixois".

This is the case in the district of Saint-Eutrope with the construction of the City Beisson.
In 1944, the urbanization of the latter consists of a dispersed habitat, in discontinuous order, composed of large or small agricultural properties (rural residences of urban dwellers who derive income from land use); of some houses built in the Entre-two wars and a garden city, the Cité Saint-EutropeThis city is the first development of the Public Housing Authority of the city (created in 1915) and includes 89 pavilions and four commercial premises^[16].
Its morphology, characterized by a circular plan typical of the garden cities of the 1930s has now disappeared. The city was replaced by a new program between 1966 and 1967 which still bears the name of Cité Saint-Eutrope.

In July 1954, the Prefect of the Bouches-du-Rhône, Mr. Haas-Picard, informed the City Council of the launch of the four-year construction program of the Ministry of Reconstruction and Housing (MRL) under the fourth tranche of the "Industrial sector"covering the period 1954-1957.
39,500 housing units from the public and private sectors are to be built for the entire department of Bouches-du-Rhône, including 2,500 in Aix-en-Provence. The city must quickly acquire land in order to achieve the objectives of this program, spread over 4 years.

It is in this context that the construction project of the City of Beisson is born.
A project which, between 1959 and 1962, was part of the main phases of the city’s growth and Two Hundred Units^[17] by Fernand Pouillon (1951-1953) and the City of Corsy (Sherjal, Louis Poutu, Joseph Lajarrige, Jean-Marie Sourdeau and Perrier, 1954-1959) first large-scale urban operations representative of the national spatial planning policy during the Thirty Glorious.

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[7] Created at the end of the 16th century.
[8] Municipal resolutions of 1848 and 1853.
[9] Doors destroyed between 1848 and 1874.
[10] The last remains destroyed in 1881.
[11] As well as the fact that it has remained away from the great movement of urbanization of the nineteenth century linked to the Industrial Revolution and especially to the passage of the railway line Paris-Lyon-Marseille (PLM).
[12] This influx of migrant workers is in direct relation to the decline and the progressive eccentricity of the Marseilles port economy, which then allows the animation of neighbouring localities, among others: La Ciotat, Gardanne, the development of the Berre pond, Martigues, Port de Bouc, Marignane… etc.
[13] A phenomenon that predates the 1950s but persists in those years.
[14] 9,000 families settle in Aix.
[15] The example of the unhealthy condition of the Cardeurs islet attested by prefectural decree dated 1^e April 1954 illustrates this point.
[16] Country of Aix Habitat 2009 activity report.
[17] Heritage label of the 20th century.